UK government seeks public opinion on stem cell research

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Medical Research Council says the programme will inform them about public concerns, views and attitudes and provide an opportunity for scientists to discuss with the public the challenges that and the potential benefits.

Announcing the programme at a meeting of the UK’s leading stem cell researchers, science minister Malcolm Wicks said, “There must be a proper dialogue with the wider public on the future of stem cell research. We need to raise public awareness about the potential opportunities and challenges in this area.”

A key element will be to raise awareness about world-class stem cell research in the UK and the progress that is being made towards potential treatments, while communicating realistic examples of its potential.

Back to GM?

This stem cell debate is reminiscent of GM Nation, the huge public relations programme the government ran in 2003 to try and convince the public of the value of genetically modified crops.

After holding more than 600 public meetings across the country the organisers concluded that there was widespread concern not only about the safety of genetically modified crops, but also a range of related social and political issues.

“People expressed strongly the belief that GM technology and GM food carried potential risks, and a majority rejected any suggested benefits from GM, except to the companies which promoted it,” they concluded. Although such attitudes varied in intensity, it represented the majority viewpoint of those who participated in the debate.

The government had believed that if people were better informed about GM crops, they would support adoption of the technology but, in fact, the opposite happened.

“When people in the general population become more engaged in GM issues and choose to discover more about them, they harden their attitudes to GM,” the report on GM Nation said.

Stem cell research starts from a different position, having had a generally positive reception from the general public. As much as anything this debate is intended to temper expectations of how soon research will translate into the promised therapies for currently intractable diseases.

Scientists ‘need to explain’

Colin Blakemore, Medical Research Council Chief Executive, said scientists in the field need to ensure they maintain the trust and support of the public. “To achieve this, we need to explain what work is being carried out and why it's being done. We also want to make sure that people are aware of the possibilities of research, what it's realistically likely to achieve, and, above all, the importance of meticulous and careful research that takes ethical issues into account.”

And although the public was supportive of the introduction of the UK’s liberal laws relating to stem cell research and therapeutic cloning, some disquiet has crept in of late over proposed extensions to the research licensed under the law.

In particular, it has been agreed that altruistic egg donations for stem cell research should be allowed, and there is currently a discussion over whether licenses should be granted for the generation of human/animal embryos. These would be created from the enucleated eggs of rabbits, sheep or cows, fused with the nucleus of a human.

Any stem cell lines generated in such a way would be used for research, for example to model human diseases, and could not be used therapeutically.